Handel’s beautiful, intimate settings of liturgical texts written for the First Duke of Chandos are among his less well-known choral works—and are proved by this second volume from Trinity also to be among his loveliest. They are a perfect example of the composer’s English style heard in Acis & Galatea and oratorios such as Judas Maccabaeus.

The soloists on this recording include internationally acclaimed Handelians Susan Gritton and Iestyn Davies, and the young tenor Thomas Hobbs, whose warm, lyrical tone is perfect for this repertoire. Trinity College Choir Cambridge sing with their usual youthful exuberance tempered with elegance, style and precision, under the expert guidance of Stephen Layton.

“Layton directs his young singers with such a perfect control of texture and rhythm that there's no hint of stodginess” Gramophone Magazine, July 2013

“Layton has drilled his singers to perfection in this trio of Handel's Chandos Anthems, making every word distinct and every crisp consonant a taut springboard on which to propel Handel's irresistible rhythm...Thomas Hobbs is the stand-out soloist” The Observer, 8th July 2013

“It says much for Layton's skill that he has managed to retain their companionable intimacy despite super-sizing his own resources to a choir of more than 30 singers with orchestra to match...Layton is a peerless Handelian, master of the architecture, yet constantly alert to enlivening nuances that only seem obvious with hindsight.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2013 ****

The Grosvenor Chapel is a wonderful jewel of an early eighteenth-century building in Mayfair in central London. Its unique and original design influenced the architecture of many churches built in the US.

From its opening in 1731 the Grosvenor Chapel has enjoyed professional choral music of an enviable standard and this recording features a selection of choral music drawn from the wide range of repertoire sung by the renowned Grosvenor Chapel Choir in the Sunday morning service each week.

Over four hundred years of English music is represented, with works from Thomas Tallis to contemporary British composer, Jonathan Dove, together with an orchestral Mass by Mozart, and features the first recording of ‘Come, Thou Holy Paraclete’ by Francis Jackson, written for the Grosvenor Chapel Choir.